* Posts by Zack Mollusc

458 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Jul 2008

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Windows 10 failing to patch properly? You are most definitely not alone

Zack Mollusc

Re: non-optional updates

Accidental downvote due to fumblefingers. Sorry.

Copilot pane as annoying as Clippy may pop up in Windows 11

Zack Mollusc

Wow!

Hadn't thought about iTunes for years.

I remember having to download it to use an iPod that I had been given and the first thing it did was rename some music files without asking for permission.

There was apparently some switch in the settings for 'do not make changes to user files without asking' , but I didn't know that at the time .

Anyhoo, it became obvious that Apple had spent a great deal of time and effort to make it as difficult as possible to copy data to and from a storage device so I threw it in the bin and deleted iTunes.

Ah, memories.

World-plus-dog booted out of Facebook, Instagram, Threads

Zack Mollusc

They have a point...

1.0 is a very unusual family name. It is not all that surprising that they thought you were a bot.

Zack Mollusc

Why login to Meta?

Why is it necessary to log in to Meta? I thought they were surveillancey capitalisming everybody? Surely they know who is accessing their systems?

Hold up world, HP's all-in-one print subscription's about to land, and don't forget AI PCs

Zack Mollusc

Hehe, I was going to ask the same thing.

Someone had to say it: Scientists propose AI apocalypse kill switches

Zack Mollusc

extra layer?

Is this proposed kill switch a replacement for, or in addition to, the preset kill limit that killbots have?

It's time we add friction to digital experiences and slow them down

Zack Mollusc

Re: THIS!!!

The trillions spent on AI would indicate that returning erroneous results is not a problem.

Zack Mollusc

just use website technology

Use of industry standard website coding techniques would stop these attacks.

Pretty hard to download someone's bitcoin wallet when every request is intercepted and redirected and requires the execution of 3Gb of javascript, solving of 12 Captchas, consenting to tracking and watching 20 minutes of advertising before timing out and making you start again.

Tesla's Cybertruck may not be so stainless after all

Zack Mollusc

Re: Cybertruck - the gift that keeps on giving...

Oh, bravo! Made my day.

250 million-plus reserved IPv4 addresses could be released – but the internet isn’t built to use them

Zack Mollusc

Odd.

I find it strange that IPV4 has been running out of addresses for twenty years, has run out of addresses ten years ago, and now bitter infighting on a global scale for this scarce resource which is vital for commerce has pushed the price up to an eye-watering $30.

Really?

$30 when streaming companies want $5 for a one-time viewing of a heavily compressed SD resolution version of a fifty year old B movie that is in the dvd bargain bucket at the supermarket?

Attempts to demolish guardrails in AI image generators blamed for lewd Taylor Swift deepfakes

Zack Mollusc

why is nobody...

..discussing the horrifying work being done by geneticists? I recently saw a documentary about a gigantic deformed mouse which had escaped from the lab and was driving a steamboat whilst whistling. I have not been able to sleep since.

An established AI player is in nasty trouble – in this market? What? Why?

Zack Mollusc

Re: Ask Dr Theopolis

On the catwalk?

On the catwalk?

Hotel Wi-Fi not only hideously expensive – it's horribly insecure

Zack Mollusc

Re: All of IT security is a a Sticking Plaster...

I disagree. We should not throw away the intarwebz and replace them with a more secure system, we should throw away all the things that are using the intarwebz for purposes which require security and re-implement them on some other, secure, platform.

Is critical infrastructure prepared for OT ransomware?

Zack Mollusc

Needs better phrasing

"If this is critical infrastructure, protect it like it's critical infrastructure,"

Useless advice when all infrastructure, critical or otherwise has any maintenance, security or redundancy removed by accountants in the name of efficiency.

It took Taylor Swift deepfake nudes to focus Uncle Sam, Microsoft on AI safety

Zack Mollusc

I don't get it

We know not to trust plain text such as "Nobody needs to pay their taxes this year - Official Statement From IRS", because any random idiot can type it (and did, just now).

We know not to trust audio because that also can be faked.

We know not to trust photographs because photoshop.

CGI and deepfakes are just another reason to distrust images/video.

What is the problem?

What is Model Collapse and how to avoid it

Zack Mollusc

My favourite part

is the way he thinks big companies will have an advantage because they can pay for humans to create better training data.

He is technically correct, but big companies also can pay humans to do better quality control, can pay for safer and less polluting processes, can pay for equipment repair, living wages, research etc.

A training set that is massively flawed, but a dollar cheaper to produce than a "pure" data set, will be the one that is used.

Boeing goes boing: 757 loses a wheel while taxiing down the runway

Zack Mollusc

Obvious cause

Boeing's quality problems are clearly due to the top echelons of management being woefully underpaid. If the C-suite had their pay tripled or quadrupled, they would then have sufficient incentive to run the company properly.

The rise and fall of the standard user interface

Zack Mollusc

Re: Motif?

That is not actially an objective, it is just the by-product of each new Microsoft Windows version being coded by programmers who have never seen previous versions of Windows. Or, indeed, any operating systems.

Post Office boss unable to say when biz knew Horizon could be remotely altered

Zack Mollusc

I wonder...

.. if the Horizon software had been flawed in the other direction, ie the postmasters had seen a surplus of thousands of pounds, if it would have taken 20 years to discover and remedy?

DARPA's air-steered X-65 jet heads into production with goal of flying by 2025

Zack Mollusc

Re: Wing-Warping

Ailerons precede wing warping. They were patented in 1868. Is this (and the late-1700s aerodynamic research by Caley) the early european lead to which you refer?

Windows 12: Savior of PC makers, or just an apology for Windows 11?

Zack Mollusc

The AI 'killer app' is voice recognition

When the ordinary non-technical moron wants a computer to do something for them, they cannot use a CLI because that would involve knowing anything and they cannot use a GUI because even that would involve some level of understanding of the problem to be solved.

The solution is an AI voice recognition system. The user can say "How can I, like, make my company more profitable and stuff while putting and end to war and hunger and all the bad things and also have bikini models find me attractive? The AI will then confidently respond with whatever its sponsors are pushing that day.

Danish techies claim they can predict your next move (and your last)

Zack Mollusc

Re: Lyngby's herringbone chokerooni!

I heard that they are calling for rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertaincy.

Debian preps ground to drop 32-bit x86 as separate edition

Zack Mollusc

New Shiny

As a young TokTik influencer, I have no idea who Debian is or what a 32-bit x86 might be, but I applaud its dropping (or 'release for sale', as the old fogies might call it).

I am hoping it is a new kind of tattoo, piercing or gender.

Doom is 30, and so is Windows NT. How far we haven't come

Zack Mollusc

Relax, scrote, the conversational interface will record and datamine your precise commands and return whatever the highest-bidding third parties want you to see.

Zack Mollusc

Re: Sure...

Well, you could actually look at the prints from your Olympus without being nagged to create an account and having to seperately opt-out of 10 billion cookies from 10 billion intrusive jerks and without having to fight off banners and adverts sliding over the content from all angles. Also without having to pay for the bandwidth and processing of all those annoyances.

Google Pixel gets privacy mode to keep your selfies safe from prying repair techs

Zack Mollusc

Brace yourself...

...I have had a game-changeing radical idea! How about having a REMOVABLE memory device, so you would just need to pull that out and you would have all your pictures, downloads, apps and everything safe. I am thinking of something like a USB stick, but you could probably make it even smaller.

Last Vega rocket launch delayed over fuel tank vanishing act

Zack Mollusc

Re: Note ?

It doesn't matter how many notes you put on stuff, some people will throw away anything that is not their direct responsibility. Annoyingly, they never get in trouble for it or have to sort out the problems they cause.

GM's Cruise sheds nine execs in the name of safety and integrity

Zack Mollusc

Good start.

They have successfuly increased integrity by sacking CEOs , but to maintain it they need to resist employing any replacements.

Doom turns 30, so its creators celebrate seminal first-person shooter’s contribution to IT careers

Zack Mollusc

Re: Found my box set

God DAMNIT monster! What did I tell you about askin me for no tree fiddy?

Google's Project Ellman: Merging photo and search data to create digital twin chatbot

Zack Mollusc

Job demarkation !!

Now google is trying to take Charlie Brooker's job!

Amazon hitches a ride with SpaceX for Project Kuiper launches

Zack Mollusc

Re: tight schedule

Not so tight schedule. Spacex have shown that they can reliably re-use boosters and put stuff into orbit, so any CEO will tell you that they can do the same thing in half the time with a quarter of the resources without having to hire additional staff.

Europe's Ariane 6 rocket rated 'ready to rumble' after passing hot fire test

Zack Mollusc

Re: Capacity that made it competitive with SpaceX's Falcon 9.

Are we talking about british industry?

Musk's broadband satellite kingdom Starlink now cash flow positive – or so he claims

Zack Mollusc

Re: Price not related to internal cost

Damned straight, AC! The jails are so full of businessmen who lied that there is no room for the burglars/murderers/junkies etc.

BOFH: Groundbreaking discovery or patently obvious trolling?

Zack Mollusc

What's Mr Jolly got that we haven't?

You get a Copilot, and you get a Copilot – Microsoft now the Copilot company

Zack Mollusc

Re: Same old

The people who will actually derive value from this will be spending someone else's fifty bucks.

As the Top500 celebrates its 30th year, with a $5 VM you too can get into the top 10 ... of 1993

Zack Mollusc

Stupid question

I was just wondering if the fiver a month cloudy computing is cheaper than the electricity cost of doing the same amount of computing locally. Is this so?

Software is listening for the options you want it to offer, and it's about time

Zack Mollusc

Re: A great creative opportunity.

"Hi there, I am OptionGPT and I am here to help set up the myriad possibilites of this complex software to be optimal with your unique use case, despite having zero understanding of either."

Seems legit.

Inside Denmark’s hell week as critical infrastructure orgs faced cyberattacks

Zack Mollusc

Yes and no

The vast majority of those things 'need' internet access in the same way that the Financial Director 'needs' cocaine . cannot function without it, but it does not have to be this way.

Bad eIDAS: Europe ready to intercept, spy on your encrypted HTTPS connections

Zack Mollusc

Never understood certs

I am connecting to an HTTP web site run by some unknown jerk. OMG, my privacy and security are at risk!

Solution: connect to an HTTPS web site run by some unknown jerk and trust that the cert issued by a different unknown jerk is kosher.

Beijing prepares for imminent rise of humanoid robots

Zack Mollusc

Neat!

These new humanoid robots have an obvious immediate application, replacing the human safety driver in all those self-driving cars.

Mid-contract telco price hikes must end, Ofcom told

Zack Mollusc

Fair increase.

I don't begrudge a price rise in line with inflation as I assume their workers will also have their wages increased by the same percentage at the same time.

Microsoft warns it may ‘throttle’ its generative AI services for ‘excessive’ users

Zack Mollusc

Has the ouput of these things started to include 'sponsored content' yet? No? Maybe next week.

Cruise blues: Robotaxi firm pauses all driverless operations

Zack Mollusc

stoppages .. hmm

A group of autonomous machines simultaneously glitch out? What are the odds? They don't sound very autonomous. Sounds more like a group of remotely operated machines lost connection.

Red light for robotaxis as California suspends Cruise's license to self-drive

Zack Mollusc

Re: Withheld video seems to be the big thing here

Video may show whether the pedestrian was visible to the Cruise before the alleged hit-and-run driver collided with the pedestrian.

Did the Cruise note that a pedestrian was in the road?

Did it assume that the pedestrian would not move into the path of the Cruise?

Did it 'know' the hit-and-run driver was going to collide with the pedestrian but assume that it was somebody elses problem because its own lane was clear at that point?

ULA's Vulcan Centaur hopes to rocket into Christmas

Zack Mollusc

Re: New Galilleo Launches

Hmmm, but that is just the civilian side. EU has gained a military GPS that is not subject to the whims of the USA.

SEC boss warns it's 'nearly unavoidable' that AI will cause financial crash

Zack Mollusc

No surprises, just accelleration.

Since the financial AI will be trained on historical trading records which are driven by uninformed and unscrupulous humans making wild assumptions and valuations based upon data pulled from their asses, the AI will be able to make more wild assumptions per second and pull more random numbers out of its electronic ass much faster.

Windows 11: The number you have dialed has been disconnected

Zack Mollusc

Re: hacks that write the drivel that gets published here, HATE anything to do with Apple

Apple is 'tech' again? Cool, these last 40 years of it being fashion have been really disappointing.

Paying for WinRAR in all the wrong ways - Russia and China hitting ancient app

Zack Mollusc

Re: What?

Thank you.

Zack Mollusc

What?

Am I reading this right? Windows cannot figure out how to execute a file, so it instead looks for a file with a different extension and executes that?

Look ma, no fans: Mini PC boasts slimline solid-state active cooling system

Zack Mollusc

is that good?

How does it compare with a traditional fan? Does a 1W fan move more or less than 4.whatever W of heat? Is the selling point the efficiency or the size?

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